Little, Brown denies Rowling novel plans

Publisher Little, Brown has described a Sunday Times report that JK Rowling has planned out up to seven novels in her adult crime series written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith as "without foundation".

The Cuckoo’s Calling (Little, Brown), the first in the series, was released last year, with Rowling’s identity as the author remaining a secret for a number of months.

After it was revealed in July that Galbraith was the Harry Potter author’s pseudonym, the book’s sales rocketed.

The Silkworm, the second novel featuring private detective Cormoran Strike, will be released on June 19th.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday (February 23rd) that Rowling has been working on a third Cormoran Strike novel since last year, and that she has planned out up to seven books with the character.

The newspaper also said “ITV have held preliminary discussions with Rowling’s team about adapting the Cormoran Strike series for television”.

A spokesman for The Blair Partnership, which handles TV and film rights for the Galbraith novels, said it "has received a number of notes of interest in the film/TV rights for the Galbraith novels, but it is early days, and nothing has been confirmed yet".

Rowling’s first adult fiction novel written under her own name, The Casual Vacancy (Little, Brown), is to be turned into a three-part BBC1 series.

A spokesman for Little, Brown said: “Richard Brooks has written this without foundation and there aren’t seven books planned in the series.”

The Cuckoo’s Calling has sold 167,934 copies so far through Nielsen BookScan.